Smartphones were supposed to kill off portable consoles and for a brief moment they did. It took 2-3 years until people realized dedicated hardware was so much better and Switch happened to launch at perfect time.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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Well, we've now got Steam Deck turning your portable console into a full PC, just connect a keyboard. Also no need to buy a Steam Deck version of that game you bought on Steam ten years ago, it's already there and probably runs great.
It might be that proprietary, single purpose gaming portables are going to lose to more flexible portables even if smartphones are too limited to do the job.
Also no need to buy a Steam Deck version of that game you bought on Steam ten years ago, it’s already there and probably runs great.
Android could have had this same advantage too, but Google's now pushing this whole framework version check thing.
There's also the fact the mobile gaming industry worked hard to make it an ad riddled, predatory monetisation & whalebait laden skinner box hellscape.
I don't deny there's a few gems mixed into the dogshit, which is a shame because I'm not going digging for it.
long response sorry
I think smartphones could have done a massive amount of damage to consoles and ultimately will occupy a large section of gaming as they should.
This has been forgotten and it shouldn’t, but mobile gaming really wasn’t a business movement to transfer existing video game development practices to a mobile environment, it was a business movement to apply corporate business practices to gaming. Mobile gaming wasn’t ever given a fair chance because there has always been a huge headwind of money shaping the mobile gaming industry into the toxic shithole it is.
Not to mention the Apple and (more so) Google app stores have never valued creating reliable game suggestions and review databases that people actually trusted. Neither has either company given a shit about encouraging a cottage industry of mobile game critics, instead they have pretended like people are seriously going to keep looking for new games through the recommendations of an algorithm that is so obviously tuned to spit out crap and point you at the same old couple of popular slot machine microtransaction games over and over again.
If you forget all that nonsense though and take a look at games like Call Of Duty Mobile, Farlight 84 and Pubg Newstate, touchscreen interfaces are getting extremely good for shooters and many mobile players have gotten extremely good at creating custom arrangements of buttons so they can use three or four fingers to play almost competitively as the average mouse and keyboard player (farrrr better than a controller player without gyro).
Games like Call Of Duty Mobile and the now maddeningly defunct Apex Legends Mobile also allow the use of a controller hooked up via Bluetooth to your phone. Using an xbox x/s controller and the PowerA Moga gaming clip 2 you can mount your phone on your controller in a very sturdy fashion. You can then turn gyro input on your phone on too (which is normally for touchscreen users directly holding their phone). In this way I was able to aim in Apex Legends Mobile without auto-aim far more competitively than someone playing normal Apex Legends on console could do with a controller and no gyro even if they had auto-aim turned on.
This clip only costs about $17, so that with a used Xbox x/s controller for let’s say $35 gets you the ability to comfortably play Wreckfest on your phone anywhere in your house with your phones beautiful AMOLED screen at a close enough distance to give you a high fidelity viewing experience. The clip also easily pops off and can be stored in a pocket.
You can’t argue the potential of mobile gaming especially if people continue to buy phones with fairly powerful processors and high quality screens. Sure I love gaming on a computer or a console, but those cost money and most people only need to drop <$50 on some peripherals to game with their phone. I game on a steamdeck and I am satisfied with that right now but in many ways the balance of my phone in a moga clip was better and anyways everybody already has a phone so it was dead easy to wrangle friends in on actually good mobile games.
The problem is all the business/corporate bros in mobile gaming are keeping the industry from innovating or really even just replicating the experience of normal gaming because they have been hellbent on enshittifying mobile gaming from the start.
We would ALL own Diablo Mobile if it was actually a phenomenal Diablo game that we could play with any friends we wanted and was satisfying to control on mobile. Blizzard just catastrophically shit the bed and made people feel icky for participating in this corporatization of gaming.
Made a comment in another thread the other day, but as a gamesir x2 pro owner the telescopic controllers are really good now too.
I got the USBC one so no input delay or battery to recharge, cost me $100AUD, built solid and there are mod guides out there now (I'm gonna add a 30mm fan or two to keep my phone cool it can get a bit hot under heavy load.
Isn’t it amazing this capability was basically right there from the beginning of mobile gaming?
It really shows badly corporate business practices utterly destroyed the ability of mobile gaming to innovate and improve as a medium for years and years. We might as well be almost 10 years behind where we should be in the evolution of the mobile gaming scene and it is honestly appalling.
I am so glad we have options like your gamesir x2! I use an Xbox controller just because I already had one, actually for awhile I was using a wired Xbox 360 controller which would sometimes work for games that weren’t even designed with controller input because compatibility is so good with 360 controllers lol.
How do you like the joysticks and buttons on the gamesir?
The pro is the one to get I'll tell you, unless you have a Z-Fold, in which case get the X2C (I think) that just released, that one's got the port on the left, meaning when unfolded it sits with the screen unfolded upwards.
The standard X2 has buttons for the triggers, pro has travel. The joysticks aren't hall effect on mine iirc, but they're very accurate and it's surprisingly comfortable. You can also swap the ABXY around as they're magnetic button caps, and they're held in so well I need pliers to pull em. Only issue I've got is left on the D-pad is a little finicky and it makes combos a bit difficult at times on some games.
You can mod the X2 pro so it stretches out and fits a 10/11" tablet but it'll stretch the springs out, or add fans if your phone gets a bit hot like mine under heavy load (I'll likely be adding a 30mm fan or two).
I give it a 9/10, -1 for D-pad jank.
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I can't believe we're talking about this again. Feels like every five years or so, some industry has-been wants to talk about phones changing gaming.
Last year was one of the best for games in recent years, all of which I wouldn't want to play on my phone.
Wake up, Touchscreens aren't ideal, it's just convenient. The market is bigger than just people wanting to play on the phone.
EDIT I reread and think my rant isn't really applicable to this, but I'll leave up how I feel anyway.
exactly, touchscreens are only good because they take no extra space and are terrible in every other way
Remember when Blizzard was like "You guys have phones right?"
What the world needs right now is Steam boxes. Just build a $500 PC, slap Steam OS on it and you're done. The ecosystem is already there. I really don't understand why nobody has done this.
They did try this a while back, steam machines were around at 2015. I could see it getting a rebirth in a similar design to the steam deck in a few years though.
Steam OS and big picture weren't very mature yet at the time. I think now that the Deck has proven the UX, they could definitely revisit this idea. And I pray that they do because it could mean more Steam controllers on the market
Seriously, I ordered a steam controller right before they were discontinued, and got a refund :(
Sad, it really is my favourite media pc controller
Yes, I'm aware of that. But the software just wasn't there at the time. But now it definitely is.
Ah yes, the steam machines. Combining the downsides of PC and Consoles since 2015.
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Can you build something like that for the same price as a higher end console? These consoles are designed to be loss leaders so it's hard to beat if you just focus on the hardware price.
Yes you can. You can build a PC with a RX7600 CPU for about $600. That's about in the same performance ballpark as a PS5. If you mass produce those and trim down some features, you'll be able to hit $500. And you won't have to pay the Microsoft tax. Sadly, this is also why it's not happening. I'm 100% sure MS are furiously working behind the scenes to prevent anyone from coming out with a system like this.
Though, caveat, the PS5 has been out for a few years. At the time it was introduced, I imagine it would have been more competitive.
Also, I don't think that the term @nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works is looking for is "loss leader". I believe that he's referring to the fact that the console is sold at a loss, while the console vendor -- who has monopoly control over the platform -- forces game prices up and extracts some of the money that game developers make. That's a different pricing strategy from use of a "loss leader" albeit with certain similarities; in the "loss leader" strategy, purchase of the sold-below-cost item isn't normally tied directly to sale of other products. I'd call this the razor-and-blades pricing strategy:
googles
Yeah. Wikipedia even uses console video game pricing as an explicit example in the first paragraph, including mentioning the distinction from a loss-leader strategy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_model
The razor and blades business model[1] is a business model in which one item is sold at a low price (or given away for free) in order to increase sales of a complementary good, such as consumable supplies. It is different from loss leader marketing and free sample marketing, which do not depend on complementary products or services. Common examples of the razor and blades model include inkjet printers whose ink cartridges are significantly marked up in price, coffee machines that use single-use coffee pods, electric toothbrushes, and video game consoles which require additional purchases to obtain accessories and software not included in the original package.[1]
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I'm a millennial and the last consoles I've owned were the PS3 and Wii.
I'm a millennial, and the last pc I owned was around the left 4 dead 2 era. Consoles are doing ridiculously well right now, as is pc, everything is flourishing. anecdotal remarks don't mean much.
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Do you own a PC?
Do you think you're a gamer?
If the answer is No, and Yes. Then that's interesting otherwise, it's nothing new.
I had a Ps4, and A Xbox One. Now I game on PC. Honestly I'm sick of modern games so I mostly retro game, but a PC is a gaming "console" in that respect.
The last console I owned was a PS5 controller. Hooked up to a PC running YuZu. :D
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Can't afford a house, but a gaming PC is only $800-2000. 🤷🏻♂️
You can build your own house in Minecraft! Or own your own home in the Sims!
Hey that's not a bad idea actually... I could live in a hole in the ground IRL, just like my first night in Minecraft!
Yeah man! Just punch a bunch of trees and then build a shack out of the wood.
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Did they realize consoles were nothing more than cheap PCs? That PC gaming gives more flexibility and freedom than a walled garden?
I haven't owned a console in years and don't care to own one.
Do you realize the difference is that a console will generally give a known quality and they usually just work without tweaking and tinkering? You don't have to research compatibility, drivers, USB versions, or any of a hundred other tiny things.
I have a gaming PC, steam deck, and a couple of mini PCs so that I can stream games across the house and play what I want in any room. It's much more plug and play than it used to be, which is why I don't feel the need to get a console. But not everyone wants to do more than plug in, update, and play.
Do you realize the difference is that a console will generally give a known quality and they usually just work without tweaking and tinkering?
The problem with this argument is that it only applies to PCs that you buy and build from off the shelf parts like any other computer you get where everything can be different. It does not apply to a pre-built console type PC manufactured using a custom IC pre-configured operating system dedicated to run games in a console-like experience, where every single one of those models are the same, especially in a case like the steam deck where it's made by the same manufacturer.
But not everyone wants to do more than plug in, update, and play.
Pretty sure you don't need to if all you want to do is play games, a good majority of games work out of the box already. Maybe it wasn't the case in the beginning when proton was younger (which is where this mentality comes from) but it certainly does now.
Edit: Hmm Downvote with no response, that plus your username tells me all I need to know. Have fun.
This guy seems to be full of takes that sound like theyre really, really bad. Only time will truly tell, but I feel pretty confident in saying that whatever this guy says is probably mostly incorrect.
Maybe that why he’s the former and not the current boss.
Well, he was an exec at SEGA before the Dreamcast was killed, so I mean... Maybe youre onto something...
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